


begin again

by Reishiin



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-09
Updated: 2016-06-09
Packaged: 2018-07-14 01:45:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7147094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reishiin/pseuds/Reishiin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"—that's just cheating," Yuuma says plaintively.<br/>"Yeah, so you have to shut it down before he XYZ summons the second time. Admit it though, it looks flashy."<br/>"True," Yuuma sighs. "Ryouga. We should tag duel sometime."<br/>"We should."</p><p>(That's twice now Tsukumo Yuuma fell in love with someone from across a table in a coffee shop)</p>
            </blockquote>





	begin again

**Author's Note:**

> somewhat based on [the song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMPEd8m79Hw) by TSwift

 

 

 

 

Wednesday evening in autumn's last weeks, the sun low in a red sky over Heartland University. The weather is beginning to take a turn for the cold, and in the rapidly falling night Yuuma clutches his collar closer and zips up his coat against the wind; reaches the shopping complex at the end of Varian Street and immediately ducks in.

The café he'd agreed to meet his lab partner at is the second shop on the left, and on a weekday evening it's empty enough that Yuuma doesn't feel bad doing homework there. He finds a table out of the way and orders a small drink for appearance's sake; pulls out pens, his notes, a calculator and scratch paper, puts in his earphones and gets to work. He's fifteen minutes early anyway.

He almost wishes he'd arranged to meet somewhere else. Every brick and neon light on Varian Street reminds him of Shingetsu Rei, entwined fingers and soft kisses behind a shared scarf in the dead end alley behind the thrift store or the pub. Guileless hope that had burned in both their hearts when, having both received notices of full-ride scholarships to the university, they'd decided to leave that small town called Sargasso behind and come here to Heartland City.

"—I wish you'd get sick of the fact that I don't change, I keep making the same mistakes and I wish you'd get tired of it all and realise you deserve better and leave—"

"Rei, I told you, I'll never—"

"—cause then I wouldn't have to suffer the guilt of having you stay—"

Rei had fallen deathly silent then, letting the gravity of what he'd said sink in for them both, and then he'd turned on his heel and left the apartment. He hadn't answered any of Yuuma's texts or told Yuuma where he was going. Wednesday the next week Yuuma had unlatched the door to Rei's keys in an envelope on the counter and empty spaces where Rei's things used to be, and that had been the end of everything.

"You can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped," Kotori had said, and Yuuma sees the logic behind the words and understands their truth but it doesn't make him feel _better._ Yuuma has always believed that problems can be solved if you work at them, that if you stay by someone and listen to them and try to understand then eventually you will be able to get through to them. So, it must mean that Yuuma didn't try hard enough. Again, he thinks about—

("—Rei, please, talk to me—")

("—no matter what it is, I promise you we can work it out, we can get through it together—")

—and how Rei had explained nothing, only shaken his head and apologized and apologized and Yuuma hadn't even been sure what for.

Again, Yuuma wonders what he himself did wrong.

On the rare day they pass each other on campus grounds Rei ignores him completely. There are rumours he's gotten up into the business of drug dealers. At first, Yuuma had tried to stop him to talk. He's since ceased trying.

A hand on his shoulder. "Hey, Yuuma?"

Yuuma pulls out one earphone and blinks at the person in front of him. "Oh, hello, sorry, I spaced," he says on reflex. "Here, let me—"

He yanks the earphones from his head and tucks them into his pocket, reaches across the table to pick up his bag from where he'd used it to save the other seat. Gathers up the papers scattered over the desk and stuffs them haphazardly in his bag, painfully conscious that Ryouga's still standing and waiting for him to finish clearing up.

Ryouga laughs. "That's fine, Yuuma, take your time," he says, and takes the newly vacant seat. He's a year ahead of Yuuma, one of the few juniors taking the class; he'd been upfront about only picking up physics 112 because he needs the science credit, and also about being bad at math so 'please don't expect me to be able to do too much of the work'. At first Yuuma had dismissed it as typical B-school insufferance, but over the term Yuuma had figured out that Ryouga 'Shark' Kamishiro isn't actually unwilling to pull his weight so much as sincerely apologetic about having shaky math foundations as a matter of fact.

Sometimes Yuuma forgets that he and Rei had had to wring every resource available to them and work three times as hard as everybody else just to get the same results, and that not everybody knows about obscure things like half-angle formulas or the remainder theorem. You learn shortcuts because as a first-generation college student it's uphill all the way, Yuuma says, and Ryouga throws his head back and laughs because _he_ went to a fancy prep school and a fat lot of good calligraphy classes, event planning and table manners training have done him; he's still stuck here getting schooled by a sophomore in the proper use of a TI-83. (That said, all he's done since enrolling in Heartland U is slack off and he's still making A's in all his classes except this one because that's just how business school is.)

Halfway through the Kinematics lab their phones buzz at the same time and that's how they find out they both do duelling club; they've managed to never run into each other because Yuuma goes Tuesdays and Ryouga Thursdays but they both hate the guy who runs Gimmick Puppets because of that thing he does with the Giant Grinder and the Puppet Princess—

"—that's just cheating," Yuuma says plaintively.

"Yeah, so you have to shut it down before he XYZ summons the second time. Admit it though, it's flashy."

"True," Yuuma sighs. "Ryouga. We should tag duel sometime."

"We should."

They get through the Kinematics lab and part of the way through Dynamics, and Yuuma's untouched hot chocolate has gone cold so Ryouga buys him another one ("I insist, it was my fault and besides I've got this gift card but I don't drink anything without coffee with it so it'll go to waste anyway.")

"You're a ridiculously simple soul, and frankly, you're an idiot," Yuuma says while they're waiting, with air quotes so Ryouga doesn't get the wrong idea.

That gives Ryouga pause. " 'But I can't drag you down with me?' " he quotes back.

The Seven Stars are a local indie band who'd never quite caught on. Yuuma only listened to their music because Rei did, really, but over time he's grown to genuinely enjoy it. "Don't get me wrong" Ryouga continues. "I don't listen to them, I just... played guitar for them for a bit so I know all their songs."

"You're kidding. Your name's not even in their lineup."

"It was only for a year, and that was my first year so, before you were around."

"No kidding," Yuuma says again. If Rei were here, he'd be asking Ryouga to autograph his books. "Why did you leave?"

"Needed to focus on school," Ryouga replies, too lightly, and Yuuma thinks there's a story behind that but he lets it slide. "Speaking of which, actually. They're performing this weekend at the Astral and I can get you free tickets, if you want."

"For real, do you mean that?"

"Yeah, for real, it'd just be thanks for getting my math-phobic ass through this. So it's you plus one, yes?"

He's interrupted by a loud crash outside. Someone with a skateboard has somehow managed to miss the fact that the door to the complex is not, in fact, open; it looks like he'd crashed into the glass panel after not being able to stop in time. There's an alarming amount of blood, people swarming round to see the spectacle and and the sound of ambulance sirens beginning to wail in the distance.

Ryouga shakes his head. "Wednesdays."

"Wednesdays," Yuuma echoes, nodding. It's an old saying that on this campus, everything that's anything happens on a Wednesday. "And. Yes, I'd love to, if you'll go with me."

 _—_ A long time ago, another boy had taken a deep breath and reached across a coffee table to take Yuuma's hand and said, _Hey, Yuuma, do you want to go to the Seven Stars' concert with me?_ And the way Rei's eyes had lit up when Yuuma nodded, Yuuma had thought he'd never fall for anyone like that again.

Now there's a warmth in Yuuma's chest that has nothing to do with the drink in his hands; sensing tension he changes the subject quickly, gently teases about not knowing something as basic as integration by parts. Ryouga laughs and looks away in mock embarrassment and the curls of his hair frame his face just so, and it makes Yuuma want to reach across the table and run his fingers through the ends.

"I told you, I went to school for table manners, not math. But yes, yes, sure, see you Saturday then."

Rei used to say you can't run away from who you really are, and to be quite frank, Yuuma does believe that. But here, like this in the café at the corner of Heartland University's shopping district, over coffee and equations Yuuma knows how to crunch a little bit better than Ryouga but that neither of them really understand. Ryouga doesn't look at Yuuma like he's the only thing in the world. He has his eyes set on something else, something bigger out there that he is trying to reach and that's fine, because Yuuma doesn't think he can bear being the centre of someone's existence like that again.

And then Ryouga does look at Yuuma after all, as he's gathering his things. He smiles and says again "Saturday then," and as he shucks on his coat and scarf and turns to leave— for the first time in a long time, Yuuma finds himself thinking about the future instead of waiting for the past to end.

 

 

 

 


End file.
